The Permaculture Collectivehttps://thepermaculturecollective.com
On this permaculture blog you find how-to guides, inspirational projects, articles on sustainable living, and all about earthcare, peoplecare and fairshare.Mon, 19 Mar 2018 17:37:38 +0000en-UShourly194610182Creating Durable Design Solutionshttps://thepermaculturecollective.com/creating-durable-design-solutions/
https://thepermaculturecollective.com/creating-durable-design-solutions/#respondSat, 17 Mar 2018 18:26:35 +0000https://thepermaculturecollective.com/?p=1183How can the discipline of design challenge excessive consumerism? It’s all based on the intricate relationships we establish with our designed environment. Humans love their belongings not only for their function. Don Norman explains that the visceral, behavioural and reflective aspects play a role in design (compare: Norman, 2004, p. 39):

Reflective – rationalisation, intellectualisation, referring to the stories, the identity that we establish around the object

A durable design would appeal to all of these levels and engage the consumers in a rather long-term and versatile relationship with the objects. Norman furthermore underlines the important role of aesthetics in product design: “Attractive things make people feel good, which in turn makes them think more creatively” (Norman, p. 19). Although people often love ugly things for the stories that are attached to them, aesthetics are thought of as facilitating an initial positive response to the objects.

The stories behind our designs

Stuart Walker puts forward the notion of spirituality in design. If objects possess a value that transgresses the worldly use, people become more attached to them. Design should not be following the corporate utilitarian notion of progress, instead it should be “informed by broader apprehensions of human meaning” (Walker, 2014, p. 83). This can be closely connected to the stories, the narratives, that surround the objects. Narratives form an important tool of sense making across cultures. Humans use story telling and cultural narratives to establish a feeling of connection with their history and cultural values and, most importantly, to form their cultural identity. Linda Martín Alcoff defines identities as “positioned or located lived experiences in which both individuals and groups work to construct meaning in relation to historical experience and historical narratives” (Martin Alcoff, 2005, p. 42). Objects are tools for the construction of these narratives; they contain the stories that we build our identity upon.

We establish an emotional relationship with objects that evoke meaning and feelings in us rather than just the apprehension of their practical use. Sustainable design can rely on these structures by reinforcing the emotional bond between the consumer and the objects. Things that we are emotionally attached to are less likely to end up in landfills.

Jonathan Chapman refers to this mechanism as emotional durability: “Emotionallydurable design explores the idea of creating a deeper, more sustainable bond between people and their material things. The ultimate aim is to reduce the consumption and waste of resources by increasing the durability of relationships between consumers and products” (Chapman, 2015, p. 21).

It is clear that these emotional bonds are being capitalised on an industrial scale as they form the base for marketing campaigns. However, sustainable design should aim at overcoming the mere capitalist intentions and focus on the responsible use of resources and the whole lifecycle of a product.

Alastair Fuad-Luke advocates an activist design, a “design that does not affirm the industrial agendas but challenges and questions it” (Fuad-Luke, 2009, p. 120).

Design can play a leading role in social change by challenging current consumer practices. Many methods like the co-creation of products and modular designs are gaining popularity and could have a tremendous impact on the ways we consume.

]]>https://thepermaculturecollective.com/creating-durable-design-solutions/feed/01183Born Guilty?https://thepermaculturecollective.com/born-guilty-the-implications-of-consumerism/
https://thepermaculturecollective.com/born-guilty-the-implications-of-consumerism/#respondFri, 16 Mar 2018 17:52:39 +0000https://thepermaculturecollective.com/?p=1176In a world full of human-made things, people in most societies are born addicted to consumption. Even before taking our first breath, people make decisions on behalf of our well-being that include the use of wasteful materials. Cotton swabs, syringes, diapers- let alone all the gifts and toys we receive from the very beginning onward. Everything wrapped neatly in shiny, appealing packaging. The attachment to things is one problem but the biggest issue here is the over-consumption and the depletion of natural resources all over the world. When contemplating on the social structures underlying this limitless consumption, I came back to Max Weber’s concept of the Protestant ethics.

Weber establishes a link between capitalism and a disenchanted rational society that is governed by the protestant ethics of chastity and purity; he views this cultural makeup as a perfect soil for capitalism to flourish. Weber argues that

“[…] the earning of more and more money, combined with the strict avoidance of all spontaneous enjoyment of life […] is thought of purely as an end in itself” (Weber, 2005, p. 18).

People are expected to work long hours, enjoy less leisure time and consume a lot. We burden ourselves with hard work to acquire stuff that does not fulfil the promise of making us better and happier persons. Sounds paradox? It seems like something is severely going out of hand in societies all around the globe.

Governing The Environment

The cultural philosopher Charles Eisenstein describes the rationale of the capitalist exploitation of natural resources: He explores the aspirations of humans to control nature. This implies the idea of being able to govern and predict everything, eliminating any doubts and surprises. Humans are accordingly seeing themselves as a separate entity from their surroundings, as a dominant and ruling force superior to nature. A binary between the ‘civilised, successful’ human and the ‘underdeveloped’ natural environment is established in this world view. Since nature is not seen as valuable in itself it is simply treated as a means to an end.

It is no wonder that humanity is treating the planet in such a careless way if our idea of progress is linked to working hard, consuming without end and ruling over our environments. It is definitely time to change something about that. And interestingly enough, the discipline of design can show a promising way out of our current dilemma (see my next article: Creating Durable Design Solutions).

Sources

]]>https://thepermaculturecollective.com/born-guilty-the-implications-of-consumerism/feed/01176Quick Vegetable Stockhttps://thepermaculturecollective.com/quick-vegetable-stock/
https://thepermaculturecollective.com/quick-vegetable-stock/#respondThu, 22 Dec 2016 12:53:45 +0000http://thepermaculturecollective.com/?p=741Vegetable Stock is a fundamental ingredient for many people – it allows us to easily add taste to almost anything. Unfortunately store-bought vegetable stock is often loaded with artificial flavour-enhancers such as MSG and even organic versions usually have a vegetable content below 50% and aren’t exactly cheap.

Luckily, making your own vegetable stock from nothing but fresh vegetables, herbs, salt, and a drip of olive oil is extremely easy, quick, and cheap! This vegetable stock contains 80% fresh vegetables, takes only about 15 minutes to prepare and can be kept for about a year at room temperature without going off! Also, this is a great way to preserve any surplus vegetables and it makes a great gift. Let’s dive into the recipe!

The Ingredients

1. Fresh vegetables
for example:

Carrots

Cabbage

Celery

Bell Peppers

Leek

Onions

Mushrooms

Garlic

2. Some Herbs (fresh or dried)
for example:

Parsley

Cilantro

Coriander

Rosemary

Curcuma or Ginger

3. Salt (200g per 1kg of vegetables)

4. Olive Oil (approximately 2 Tbsp. per 1kg of vegetables)

The Recipe

Once you’ve got all your ingredients together, make sure to have enough jars at hand and get your blender ready. Also, disinfect your jars (by placing them in boiling water for a minute) and all your other equipment, to make sure your vegetable stock doesn’t go off!

Wash the vegetables, then chop them down to a size your blender can handle. Throw all your ingredients in the blender, blend until you’ve got a smooth consistency and directly fill into your jars. Done!

]]>https://thepermaculturecollective.com/quick-vegetable-stock/feed/0741How to Reduce Your Trashhttps://thepermaculturecollective.com/how-to-reduce-your-trash/
https://thepermaculturecollective.com/how-to-reduce-your-trash/#respondTue, 06 Oct 2015 04:11:06 +0000http://thepermaculturecollective.com/?p=694This post was first published in October 2015 and updated in March 2018.

Reducing or, at best, eliminating plastic trash from your life is one thing everyone can do to help make our planet a more beautiful place! There are some basic things we can all do immediately to reduce our trash load, some of which are: use reusable canvas bags for shopping, say no to bottled water and just carry a reusable steel bottle, buy bulk rather than single-wrapped items, cut out sodas and other plastic bottled or canned beverages, bring your own containers for things that usually come with an extra plastic container, and give up frozen convenience food. Also getting broken things repaired instead of trashing them and buying second-hand rather than new items will help improve your plastic-footprint!

Find sustainable alternatives

Of course there will always be things which you absolutely need to buy and cannot make yourself. What you can do, however, is to replace products made from and packaged in plastic with biodegradable, or at least more ecologically friendly alternatives. Here are a few examples of products that I’ve replaced:

Toothbrush

Your toothbrush is something you replace every few months, yet the conventional toothbrush is designed in a way that you throw the entire thing away. There are two viable alternatives that I am aware of:

Toothbrushes with a replaceable head.These let you swap the toothbrush head instead of replacing the entire toothbrush. This significantly reduces the amount of plastic waste for those with plastic-heads, and there are even versions with natural bristle and heads made from biodegradable plastic.
You can find one on this site, in your local organic store, or if you’re lucky even in a supermarket near your.

Wooden toothbrushes with natural bristle. These are fully made from wood (often from bamboo, because it is a durable, sustainable type of wood) and sport a bristle made from biodegradable material such as pig bristle or a vegan alternative. You can find one here, your local organic store should have them, and you can surely find an online retailer that is based in or delivers to your country!

Dental Floss

Conventional dental floss is made from nylon, which is a type of plastic that is as biodegradable as your common plastic bag – not at all. Again, there are two alternatives I know of:

The good old wooden toothpick. I find it does its job quite well, is fully biodegradable, very cheap, and easy to find in any supermarket. Some are heavily packaged in plastic though, so either reduce plastic wrappings by buying bulk or look for an option that is wrapped in parchment.

Dental floss made from biodegradable materials. There are some options out there that are made from silk or other biodegradable materials and waxed with vegetable or bees wax. However, I have yet to come across a product that is fully biodegradable and not heavily wrapped in plastic. I have found a beautiful silken dental floss by Vömel that comes in a glass jar!

Razor and Razorblades

Not only are razorblades hellishly expensive, they are also mostly made from plastic. However, there is a very viable, aesthetically very pleasing alternative: the double-edged safety razor. There are numerous products of this type of razor, made entirely from steel or wood, out there. The best part is that they use the old standard razor blade, which is plastic-free and usually comes in very cheap packs of 10.

Clingwrap (plastic wrapping foil)

Everything these days comes wrapped in plastic foil and having some clingwrap around is common sense in most households. But, not only is clingwrap a huge source of disposable plastic waste, wrapping your food in plastic foil is also not very healthy because of all the plasticizers and other chemicals that will travel from the plastic into your food. Luckily there is, again, a very simple and beautiful alternative that you can easily buy online or make yourself.

Simply take a piece of natural fabric (such as cotton or hemp), put it on a baking tray, sprinkle with beeswax (like you would sprinkle a pizza with cheese, but start off with a little wax only), and bake in the oven at 80 degrees celsius for 5 minutes. Spread the melted wax with a (clean!) brush and repeat the process if there is too little wax. Once your cloth is nice and waxy hang it up for drying and ready is your homemade wax-wrapper!

Cotton Buds

Most cotton buds have a plastic shaft. There are alternatives sporting a wooden shaft and sold in paper or cardboard packaging. Check your local organic store, online shops in your country and you should find something like the Hydrophil cotton buds.

Condoms

Condoms are usually made from latex, which is a material made from vulcanized natural rubber. However, due to its treatment this rubber is not fully biodegradable. Moreover, latex often contains cancer-causing nitrosamines and most condoms are treated with nonoxynol-9 (N-9): N-9 is a toxic nonionic that breaks down sperm walls to make sperms immobile, but that is also known for causing micro-abraisions in vaginal tissue leading to vaginal irritation and burning. Unfortunately I have yet to find a fully satisfying alternative, but you can try the following:

Condoms that are not treated with N-9, such as FairSquared Condoms, Glyde Condoms or Einhorn Condoms. These options are N-9 free, but as they are made from latex they are not fully biodegradable and still come heavily wrapped in plastic packages.

Condom alternatives such as cervical caps. I have only read about these, but these re-usable silicone caps such as FemCap are said to be a viable, reusable alternative to condoms.

Use the Sympto-Thermal Method, also known as Natural Family Planning (NFP), Temperature Method, or Natural Cycle. This method relies on fertility awareness of the female partner, which means reading the body’s signs of fertility and infertility (mainly basal temperature and cervical mucus consistency).

This is all I can share with you for now. If you have any more tips or know of fully biodegradable condoms please share in the comments!

]]>https://thepermaculturecollective.com/how-to-reduce-your-trash/feed/0694Building a Clay Pizza Ovenhttps://thepermaculturecollective.com/building-a-clay-pizza-oven/
https://thepermaculturecollective.com/building-a-clay-pizza-oven/#respondFri, 18 Sep 2015 06:25:55 +0000http://thepermaculturecollective.com/?p=348A clay oven is a great feature that allows you to bake your own delicious pizzas, breads, cakes, and whatever you can think of. Charlotte and I just built one for the Wangunsari Permaculture Project in Bandung that turned out beautifully – so if you would like to build your own here is how we did it!

Materials

Some gravel (optional)

Materials for the base (such as large rocks)

Clay

Bricks (you will need roughly 40)

Sand

Straw (wheat straw, rice straw, or whatever you can find)

A tarp (preferably one you don’t mind getting dirty)

Some sheets of old newspaper

Step 1 – Designing your oven

Before you can start building you will need to make up your mind about where you will place your oven and how large you want/need it to be. You should make sure to place it in relative location to where you will eat your pizza and/or bake your bread so probably close to your terrace or the kitchen. Evidently the size of your oven will determine how many pizzas or breads you can fit in at once – keep in mind though that a pizza in a properly heated cob oven only takes about 2 minutes until it’s ready! Usually for non-commercial use an inner diameter of roughly 80cm should do the trick. Plan in another 30-40cm to account for the oven walls (15-20cm on each side) and you will know how large your base needs to be.

Step 2 – Building the base

Once you’ve decided on a location and size it’s time to build the base. Dig a roughly 20cm deep hole into the ground that has the shape of your base (so probably round), fill in some gravel (if you have some, if not don’t worry about it) and start piling up your rocks for the base to form a circle. As the outer walls of your base build up you can fill in the middle with spare rocks and gravel. Keep going until your base is stable and roughly hip high (or however high you want your oven to be, just keep in mind that we’ll be adding another 5-10cm of clay and a layer of bricks on top of th base) and more or less even on top.

Step 3 – Testing, mixing, and stomping the clay

Now it is time to get your hands dirty! You will need to mix your clay with sand, straw, and water in order to get the cob mixture that will become your oven. What is the ratio between clay, sand, straw, and water? That depends on the clay content of your clay: if you have a fairly high clay content you will be using roughly 50:50 or 40:60 clay to sand, and if your clay is rather sandy already you will be adding less sand. If you are unsure about the clay content of your clay you can test your clay, but in my experience cob is a fairly forgiving mix to work with and as long as you don’t use pure clay or almost no clay you should be fine! So, put out your tarp and throw a good amount of clay, a good amount of sand, and roughly the same amount (volume, not weight!) of straw on there. Pour a little bit of water on top (not too much at first) and start stomping!

You will be stomping for a while now (Charlotte and I put on some techno music to keep us motivated!), how long exactly depends on the amount you are tackling (doing smaller amounts at a time is a lot easier). Keep adding water if you feel like your mixture is too dry and keep folding the cob like a dough by pulling in one side of the tarp at a time. Your mixture should not be too soggy nor too dry. To test for consistency smash a handful of cob on the ground: if it splatters it is too moist and you will need to add more sand, if it does not flatten from the impact it is too dry. Keep stomping, folding, and adjusting the moisture until you have one solid mass with no pockets of sand and straw left – now your cob is ready!

]]>https://thepermaculturecollective.com/building-a-clay-pizza-oven/feed/0348Banana Circleshttps://thepermaculturecollective.com/banana-circles/
https://thepermaculturecollective.com/banana-circles/#commentsFri, 28 Aug 2015 03:20:47 +0000http://thepermaculturecollective.com/?p=345Banana circles are a popular design element in tropical permaculture – for good reason! A banana circle is basically a concave ditch filled with organic material, surrounded by a mound that is planted with a variety of high-nutrient demanding plants. You basically add pockets of fertility to your land, which act as a sink for organic wastes, as a food production system, as a habitat for insects, and as a fertility hub. You can even direct moderate amounts of grey water into them (for example from your kitchen sink), which will keep them nice and moist!

Banana circles are easy to set up, require hardly any care, and help to keep cycling nutrients in the tropics! Also, they provide a simple solution to a common cultural habit in tropical countries: the clearing of the ground as not to provide hiding space for poisonous animals such as snakes and spiders. This is common practice all over Indonesia and usually all the leaf litter and everything that falls to the ground is burned. What a waste of valuable nutrients! With banana circles in place, we can still keep the ground clear, but ensure that nutrients are cycled back into the system. So let’s dive right into the construction.

Although the name suggests that banana plants are an integral part of this element, you can actually plant any nutrient-demanding tropical plant instead of bananas – such as papaya, coconut palm trees, or passion fruit on a pole construction.

Digging your banana circle

So get your hoe, spade, or whatever tool you prefer ready and let’s get going! Measuring and staking off the areas for the ditch and mound make things a lot easier. I just put a stake wherever I wanted the middle of my banana circle to be, attached a string to it, measured off 1m and used it to stake off the circle around it – with a radius of 1m you get a diameter of 2m for your ditch. Repeat the process with roughly 1.65m and you’ve got the diameter of your mound. Obviously you can also go for other dimensions, but I found the ones provided by Doug to be quite good in terms of their ratio of ditch and mount size.

Image courtesy of Doug Crouch.

Now you can start digging out the ditch, piling the earth all around you to create the mound as you go. Make sure the bottom of your ditch is concave (as in Doug’s graphic) and the composting material you pile up later on is convex to avoid creating a mosquito-breeding-paradise!

Planting your banana circle

Once you’re done digging you can immediately start planting in all your plants and filling up the ditch with organic material. I would also recommend to immediately cover the mound with a thick layer of mulch to prevent nutrient loss and weeds from coming through. Alternatively you could sow a fast-growing cover crop such a mung beans (soak them overnight, then spread them all over the mound and slightly rake them in). Once your lemon grass has grown a little weeds shouldn’t be a problem anymore.

Image courtesy of Doug Crouch.

Most of the plants you can easily obtain from cuttings or root division. With lemon grass, it’s enough to stick one bulb in the ground and it’ll quickly grow. Cassava, taro, and sweet potato can be grown either from the root (just stick them into the ground) or from cuttings (also, just stick them into the ground). The tropics make things very easy in that respect! For your bananas you simply transplant the “babies” of an existing banana plant – cautiously dig them up and separate them from the bulb.

Now all you gotta do is to throw in some organic matter from time to time, watch your plants grow, and harvest tropical fruits and roots!

]]>https://thepermaculturecollective.com/banana-circles/feed/1345How to make Kombuchahttps://thepermaculturecollective.com/how-to-make-kombucha/
https://thepermaculturecollective.com/how-to-make-kombucha/#commentsWed, 26 Aug 2015 07:55:01 +0000http://thepermaculturecollective.com/?p=431Kombucha is a drink made from fermented green tea that enjoys a great reputation among many people as a health boosting beverage. Kombucha is said to come from China where it gained the name “drink of immortality” in 215 AD. It then spread to Russia where it was known as “tea kvass” and reached Europe soon after that. Somehow the interest in it got lost during the Second World War. However, after the war a doctor called Rudolph Skelnar revived the interest into Kombucha in Germany by using it to treat cancer patients, people with metabolic disorders, high blood pressure and diabetes. Today, many people who are conscious about their health drink or even have their own Kombucha at home!

What is Kombucha?

Kombucha is a ferment that is prepared with green tea and sugar, which will be fermented in the process. For the fermentation process a starting culture is needed, which looks like this (see the picture on the left). This is called a SCOBY, which stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. These bacteria and yeast transform the sugary tea solution into a drink with many vitamins, minerals, enzymes and organic acids that are valuable products for the human body. The final Kombucha will taste a bit sparkly and is comparable to cider or champagne.

You might wonder whether the yeast in the SCOBY will actually produce alcohol while fermenting the sugar. The answer is: yes it does, but not much. You can get up to 1 per cent of alcohol in the final Kombucha which I, for my part, don’t consider significant. This fermentation process results in most of the sugar being transformed which means that we are not drinking excessive amounts of sugar when we enjoy Kombucha. Usually less than 0.5g of sugar remain in 100ml of Kombucha.

What makes it healthy?

In the fermentation process several organic acids are produced. These include glucoronic acid, gluconic acid, lactic acid, acetic acid and some others which you probably won’t know anyways. Furthermore it produces many B vitamins, vitamin C and several amino acids. Most importantly, and the main reason why I like to drink it, is because of the many probiotic microorganisms that are in Kombucha, which are very beneficial to the health of our guts and intestines. Most of us probably have jeopardized our intestinal health by consuming antibiotics and destroyed the natural flora that we have down there. And since 70 % of our immune system operates in our guts I consider the consumption of probiotics to restore the bacterial flora as quite essential in regaining our health. Not only does Kombucha aid in the elimination of toxins but the probiotic bacteria help us digest other foods as well. Sounds like Kombucha is a perfect way to round up a meal!

How can I make it?

Making Kombucha is super simple. You need the following things:

SCOBY mother culture

Green tea

Sugar

Water

A glass jar (2-5l) with wide opening

A sieve

A funnel

You can order a SCOBY mother culture over the internet or get it from a friend who brews Kombucha as well. With every batch of kombucha that you make your SCOBY grows and can be divided and shared with friends.

This is how you start your Kombucha

Brew some green tea: Boil water, let it cool for 2 minutes, then add the green tea leaves (half a handful) and sugar. I use 100g of sugar for every liter of tea that I make. I myself brew 2 liters every week for my own consumption, feel free to brew as much as you can drink or share!

Let the tea cool down, then pour it through a sieve into your glass jar. Before touching the SCOBY make sure to wash your hands with vinegar. Then add the SCOBY to the glass: it will flow on top if it is healthy.

Cover the opening with a towel or a piece of tissue so that flies cannot enter and let is ferment for 5-7 days.

On the day you want to harvest your Kombucha prepare the new tea mixture 2 hours beforehand to allow it to fully cool down.

Once again, wash your hands with vinegar and take the SCOBY out of its glass, rinse it with lukewarm water and put it on a clean plate.

Now you can fill your Kombucha into bottles using a sieve, then wash the glass jar with hot water and vinegar.

Before pouring the fresh tea mixture into your jar add a little bit of your finished Kombucha to help it get started. Then add the tea mixture and the SCOBY, cover it and let it work for a week before you start over again.

Keep the Kombucha refrigerated if you can. Rely on your senses for quality check, if it tastes or smells weird, get rid of it. If it tastes lovely, enjoy. Kombucha goes well with mint and honey, stirred into the glass!

]]>https://thepermaculturecollective.com/how-to-make-kombucha/feed/2431Simple Raised Bedshttps://thepermaculturecollective.com/making-simple-raised-beds/
https://thepermaculturecollective.com/making-simple-raised-beds/#commentsMon, 20 Jul 2015 00:49:43 +0000http://thepermaculturecollective.com/?p=160Raised garden beds are a very simple and effective way to establish beds that provide a fertile ground for your plants, drain well, and are easily accessible. Raised beds are especially suited to areas with heavy rainfall (such as the humid tropics) as they ensure that your plants won’t drown during wet season. If you live in an arid region you should consider making sunken beds instead (which are essentially the same, except that you dig down first and make them level with the surrounding soil).

All you need to make raised garden beds is some cardboard, some material that will act as a wall around your bed (logs and branches are great because they decompose, adding more nutrients to the soil, but rocks, bricks, or empty glass bottles also work), some compost or fertile soil to fill in the bed, and some mulch material to put on top.

Step 1

Select the spot in which you would like to establish your raised bed and loosen the soil with a hoe or a spade as to allow the roots of your plants to penetrate it. Make sure that your bed will be easily accessible later by making it not too wide and having paths around it.

Step 2

Soak your loosened soil with plenty of water, then thoroughly cover it with sheets of cardboard (make sure to remove all tape and plastic wrapping) – this will prevent unwanted weeds from penetrating into your bed from below. Soak the cardboard with water.

Step 3

Now you can pile your compost / fertile soil onto the cardboard and build your little wall around it to keep it in place. In the image above we used branches that we had lying around as a border

Step 4

Heavily mulch your new raised bed to protect your soil from being exposed to sunlight and losing all its nutrients, then start planting immediately!

]]>https://thepermaculturecollective.com/making-simple-raised-beds/feed/1160Biodegradable Body Hygiene Productshttps://thepermaculturecollective.com/making-your-own-biodegradable-body-hygiene-products/
https://thepermaculturecollective.com/making-your-own-biodegradable-body-hygiene-products/#commentsSun, 12 Jul 2015 07:00:21 +0000https://bumblebeepermaculture.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/making-your-own-biodegradable-body-hygiene-products/In a recent post we shared some ideas how to replace your conventional cleaning agents with cheaper, biodegradable, homemade alternatives. Body hygiene products often contain a large number of dubious substances such as artificial perfumes, microplastic, silica, aluminum and a host of other chemicals that are harmful to the environment and to your body.

With our very simple and cheap alternatives below you can replace all your commercial products and do both your body and our planet a favor.

Body wash

You can very easily replace your body wash fluid with any natural soap. We just use olive-oil based Aleppo soap or Castile soap, but any other natural soap will do just as well.

Body scrub

You can dunk your natural soap in (used) coffee ground and start scrubbing. This method even cleans machine oil off your hands!

Shampoo

Aleppo soap & baking soda

There are plenty of recipes available on the internet, but after experimenting with a few we opted for the two simplest ones, give them a try and choose the one you prefer:

Aleppo soap: simply scrub a good amount of Aleppo soap into your hair and onto your scalp, then rinse thoroughly.

Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate): mix one tablespoon (or more depending on the length of your hair) of baking soda with one cup of water, pour it onto your wet hair, scrub it in, then rinse thoroughly.

Our experience was that our hair became oily and itchy when we first switched from chemical to natural shampoo, but after about a month our hair had adapted. We now only use natural shampoo and wash our hair only every fourth or fifth day and it looks and feels healthier and cleaner than ever!

Update: I have been completely shampoo-free for over two years now. I use only water to wash my hair when I shower. Unbelievably my hair is neither oily nor smelly and even the dandruff, which I have always been fighting with, is pretty much gone!

Conditioner

For the best and simplest conditioner simply mix one tablespoon of vinegar (we use apple cider vinegar, but really any vinegar will do) with one cup of water. Apply the vinegar-water mix to your hair after washing it with Aleppo soap or baking soda, then rinse your hair thoroughly. Done!

Toothpaste

Toothpaste is one of the products with the highest amounts of toxic chemicals. Common toothpaste includes chemicals such as Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, Triclosan, Polyethylene Glycol, or Titanium Dioxide, just to mention a few. Just DuckDuckGo any of these and you’ll know why you will not want those in your mouth. The fact that it is common knowledge that you should never swallow toothpaste is worrying enough! To replace your chemical cocktail with a healthy alternative you can either try some of those at an organic store near you (I have switched to Weleda Salt toothpaste long time ago) or have a go at the recipe below.

Weleda Salt Toothpaste

You need

2 tbsp. of bentonite clay

2 tbsp. of water

4 drops of tea tree oil

10-15 drops of peppermint essential oil

small pinch of salt

5 drops of liquid stevia (optional)

Recipe

Combine water and bentonite clay in a non-metal bowl and mix with a non-metal spoon.

Store your toothpaste in a jar with a lid, as it will dry out if left uncovered.

Deodorant

Most commercial deodorants contain aluminum, which has turned out to be one of the causes of breast-cancer in women. Not surprising as it blocks the pores in your armpit, preventing your body from excreting toxins through your sweat. Thankfully there are great alternatives out there, like the following:

You need

2 tablespoons corn starch or arrowroot powder

1,5 tablespoons baking soda

4 tablespoons coconut oil (melted)

Essential oil

Recipe

Mix the baking soda with the starch.

Add the coconut oil and the essential oil.

Stir until smooth – it’s ready to use!

Store in a jar and apply with your fingertips onto your armpits.

Shave soap

You need

35g sheabutter

35g coconut oil

25g olive oil, sesame oil or almond oil

2 flat tbsp. white rhassoul powder or fine bentonite clay

1 tsp. honey (optional)

10-15 drops of essential oil (try sandelwood or ylang-ylang)

Recipe

Melt sheabutter and coconut oil by placing them in a smaller pot, which you place in a larger pot that has a some water at its bottom. Heat up the pot and your sheabutter and coconut oil will melt.

Once melted, add the rhassoul powder or bentonite clay, oil, honey, as well as the essential oil.

Let the mixture cool down to room temperature, then refridgerate until cool. Once cooled down use a wire whisk or mixer to beat it into a whip-cream like consistency, fill into a tight-sealed jar and use within 4 weeks.

Aftershave

You need

Recipe

Combine all ingredients in a suitable glass bottle, shake, use.

]]>https://thepermaculturecollective.com/making-your-own-biodegradable-body-hygiene-products/feed/480Solar Food Dehydratorhttps://thepermaculturecollective.com/building-a-solar-dehydrator/
https://thepermaculturecollective.com/building-a-solar-dehydrator/#commentsFri, 26 Jun 2015 15:37:02 +0000https://bumblebeepermaculture.wordpress.com/?p=111A solar dehydrator is a great piece of low-cost, easy-to-build, and highly effective technology. It can be used for drying anything from fruits and vegetables to herbs and leaves or seeds or anything really very fast and using nothing but sunlight. There are many different designs out there, as you will know if you’ve done a quick search online already: some very simple and small, sporting just a black frame drying chamber with a glass front, others very complex and large. After doing some research, a number of reasons convinced Charlotte and me to build our dehydrator based on the design by Dennis Scanlin: We wanted a dehydrator that did not directly expose the food to the sun as to minimize nutrient-loss. The very simple dehydrators were thus not an option. We also looked into dehydrators with solar collectors made from recycled soft drink / beer cans and had already started collecting them at a party, but then decided against it because of the sheer amount of work it is to remove all the lids and bottoms from the cans. Finally, we wanted a dehydrator design that was already planned out for us by someone who had put some thought into it. If you read Dennis Scanlin’s building plan you can tell that he definitely has.

Illustration courtesy of Dennis Scanlin.

Scanlin’s design is good, not only because it produces a fabulous solar dehydrator, but also because it minimizes the amount of materials needed to build. Most of the required wood can be cut from a single plywood (multiplex) sheet. However, his plan is written for an American audience, using feet and inches, and assuming that you have access to an American DIY store. To save you the trouble of translating this excellent plan into something that can be used outside of the US, which is what we had to do, we decided to reproduce a condensed version of Dennis Scanlin’s solar dehydrator building plan in meters and centimeters and that is more flexible with regards to what materials you use and .